


To Love a Titan: Summary of Events

by DarthSuki



Series: To Love a Titan [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Metafiction, Multi, Reader-Insert, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:09:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29290377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthSuki/pseuds/DarthSuki
Summary: This is a deeper explanation for how the ‘To Love a Titan’ AU diverges from canonical events of Attack on Titan and how the several stories within it connect with one another. Less as a direct summary and more like a resource for people who may want to understand the bigger story as time goes on, but doesn't want to read all the smaller stories that make up the AU (though it's still not necessary since they're not written for the purpose of being read all together).I’ve done my best to keep it clinical in purpose, but please keep in mind that there are some spoilers for stories and events that haven’t yet been written for.
Relationships: Annie Leonhart/Reader, Bertolt Hoover/Reader, Eren Yeager/Reader, Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss/Reader, Porco Galliard/Reader, Reiner Braun/Reader, Ymir (Shingeki no Kyojin)/Reader
Series: To Love a Titan [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123775
Comments: 1
Kudos: 34





	To Love a Titan: Summary of Events

**Author's Note:**

> Follow my writing blog on tumblr ([Attack on Titan Writings](https://attackontitanwritings.tumblr.com/)) to see all of my ramblings and ideas first-hand. There's a lot that doesn't end up getting posted to AO3, and I also livestream the Attack on Titan 2 game every Saturday (with funny highlight videos)!

Events on the island of the world continue similarly to canon. Eren Yeager is a young teenager, friends with Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman, though he also has support in the form of his older half-brother Zeke.

Many years prior, Grisha and Zeke were sent to Paradis for conspiring against Marley after being turned in by Zeke’s grandparents. Just as in canon, Grisha is given the Attack Titan, though he uses this form to take both himself and his young son Zeke to the safety of the outer wall, where they are taken in by Keith Sadies. Grisha goes on to start a new family with Carla, though in this world, Zeke is able to be Eren’s older brother by blood as much as bond, and becomes something of a role model for the young boy when he himself joins the Survey Corps. Much of his memories of Marley have been either forgotten outright or muted by the trauma surrounding them, though he’s aware enough that he and his father aren’t from within the walls.

Though life seems simple enough for many, Grisha Yeager is alerted of an oncoming threat; a new generation of Marlayan warriors who seek to take back not only the power of the founding titan, but also to kidnap several people along very unique bloodlines that are theorized to possess powerful abilities, such as being outright ignored by pure titans, or even to become a titan shifter without the need to eat a predecessor.

Grisha had been studying such bloodlines for years, so much that he’s even developed a theory for why these bloodlines are special in the first place; at some point, each family line was in possession of a titan shifter, and somehow a remnant of that shifters power continued to flow through that bloodline even once it was passed on, however distantly. This in essence means that there are some people who can become a titan shifter without the need to eat one, if that person is a descendant of any of a small handful of family lines. Many of them have either died out or completely disseminated within the greater populace, to the theory is largely that: a theory. Fairytales of a world that those within the wall didn’t even know existed.

* * *

But Zeke, who is both Grisha’s eldest son and possessing royal blood from his mother, proves to be the perfect first candidate to try the theory out upon--and it works, miraculously enough. He inherits a duplicate of the Beast Titan, which in itself puzzles Grisha, thinking he would either get the Attack or something akin to the Founder (albeit much less powerful) due to the fact that Grisha himself carried both. Still, it means that there’s some truth to his ongoing theory, unveiling enormous consequences, both good and bad, for the future of Paradis and Marley alike.

A year or so goes by after this, with Grisha meeting Zeke outside the walls in secret to discuss their mutual origins in Marley, and how Zeke can better use his titan form as something of a protector for their family, should the need ever arise.

As time goes on, Grisha decides to risk explaining this all to his younger son Eren, whom he believes possesses the same quirk that Zeke does. Eren, upon learning of the vast land that exists beyond the walls, is more than ecstatic to take part in his father’s research. Having taken much of Grisha’s theories to heart--and Zeke own Beast Titan as evidence--Eren feels assured in the fact that he, as the son of a shifter, should turn out much like his elder brother: possessing the abilities of a titan shifter with little to no sacrifice.

Though there is truth to Grisha’s general theory, Zeke being the obvious piece of evidence, his assumption that Eren would be possessing such ability proves to be wrong--and the consequences are utterly disastrous, as he did not consider that Zeke’s royal heritage might have played a larger role in his success than he previously thought, or if there were any other deciding factors outside of his own obsessive need to know.

Eren consumes his father as a pure titan and, upon gaining the powers of a shifter—both the Attack and Founder—loses his memory and finds himself without any sense of purpose or understanding. He remembers absolutely nothing of his life except for his name, and wanders the lands outside Wall Maria for several years before it falls to Annie, Bertolt and Reiner. Zeke tries to find his brother after realizing what’s happened, but is never able to--he prefers to believe that his brother died outright, and their father along with him, and doesn’t speak about his doubts otherwise to anyone.

Despite the fact that Eren spends several years wandering about the land outside Wall Maria and then Wall Rose, many canonical events still occur. Mikasa and Armin both escape and later join the military, though it is instead to honor Eren’s memory than to follow behind him. Annie, Reiner and Bertolt join as well, though while Annie wants to find the founding titan, Bertolt and Reiner learn about a lesser noble family that is rumored to be one of those with special blood, and believes they stand a better chance in tracking it down.

The group argues about it to the point of growing distant, Bertolt and Reiner losing trust in Annie and assured in the fact that she’ll go her own way in some form or another regardless of what they do. During the next three years, Bertolt and Reiner continue to entrench themselves in the camaraderie and relationships with their fellow cadets, and even the heir to one of the noble families within Wall Rose—the same family they suspected to have that same enigmatic, desired mutation in their blood. Though the two of them planned on getting to know the heir and gaining their trust, neither Reiner nor Bertolt realized how deep of a relationship they’d create.

Cadet training eventually finishes, leading to many of the 104th Training Corps to join the garrison--Mikasa among others--while a few manage to get into the military police--Ymir and Christa namely, though only because both Reiner and Bertolt did poorly on purpose so that both women could be eligible for the military police, a fact that did not pass Ymir by idly. There are only a few people that join the scouts at this point, Armin being the most surprising, though he holds true to his dream of seeing the ocean not only for himself, but for Eren as well.

The day after graduation comes a shock. Bertolt and Reiner decide to destroy the outer wall of Trost as part of their plan to bring down Wall Rose and cause massive chaos they’d use to kidnap the heir, but something ultimately halts their plan just as they’re about to finish it. 

And that something is named Eren Yeager.

Unbeknownst to all, Eren had been wandering the wildlands outside Wall Maria, and then Wall Rose, with no memory of himself or his origins. At some point after the fall of Wall Maria, he came upon a human in the abandoned district of Quinta who he saved after a fierce rainstorm flooded much of it. One of if not the only survivor after their town was abandoned by the inner walls, Eren decided upon himself to protect them--in the several years since Wall Maria’s fall, they’ve been surviving on their own.

But they arrive at Trost just in time to help, by pure chance having been close enough to Wall Rose to see the massive titan horde gathering upon the outlying district. Despite their isolation from the inner walls, Eren and his human companion--whom was an ex-garrison member with some combat experience by this point--decide on instinct to lend their aid despite the fact that their presence would cause confusion.

And confused Bertolt and Reiner are, so much that they decide not to follow-through with their plan. The events of Trost play out very similarly to canon, though they end with Eren and the ex-garrison member being captured by the scouts; the former labeled as a monster and the latter as a traitor, some quick to claim that they were the one responsible for the attack, due to them seemingly having commanded a titan (Eren) to do their will.

The only thing stopping the fevered military from executing them both on the spot is the word of Mikasa, who somehow manages to recognize Eren even though he is a titan. It doesn’t hurt when she is able to prove he is actively intelligent and non-aggressive towards her or anyone else within the walls. It helps all the more when multiple witnesses rule in favor of both Eren and his human that they were actively helping to defend the district.

It takes some time and a lot of political argument, but both Eren and the ex-garrison member are both placed in the care and observation of the scout regiment, specifically under Levi and his subordinates—one of them being Zeke Yeager himself.

After ascertaining that the feral titan is in fact the Attack Titan—and therefore his younger brother—Zeke slowly guides Eren in being able to shift back into a human. He provides a lot of background for the other scouts, who simply don’t believe nor understand such a thing can be possible in the first place. Eren is then finally able to reattach himself (slowly) to his sense of being human, memories of childhood dull and slow to return but otherwise recognizing not only Zeke, Armin and Mikasa, but his mother Carla as well (who did in fact survive Shiganshina only due to Zeke being at home with her when it happened).

Reiner and Bertolt, meanwhile, slip under the radar in order to finalize their plans on kidnapping the heir that they’d been forging a trust with over the last couple years.

After initially kidnapping them, it becomes plainly obvious that both men are torn about the decision when they’re outside the walls and are forced to confront the possible outcome of what might happen upon bringing the heir back to Marley.

They decide to linger for a few days, then weeks, months until eventually accepting that they couldn’t fulfill their mission without forsaking something too precious to them, and ultimately built an isolated life for themselves outside Wall Rose, far into the wildlands where, luckily, the heir was indeed possessing of a unique ability: to be ignored utterly by any and all pure titans as if they simply didn’t exist. A camouflage. It’s easy to see why Marley wanted them so badly, to experiment and research in order to replicate that ability in some form.

Two years pass from that point. Within that, Eren and his human companion become full-fledged members of the scouts, and he has also learned how to return to human form for growing periods of time due to the aid of his brother, though re-learning how to act human is a bit more difficult a task. He is a valuable tool regardless, helping make great strides in the plans to retake Wall Maria and learn more about the secrets that Grisha kept in the basement of their home in Shiganshina. Even Zeke wants to find it, as many of his memories of Marley are fuzzy and faded at this point—he almost wants it to not be true, if only to make their lives simpler.

Events also unfold within that timeframe leading to the coup of the current King Fritz, outed as an imposter to the throne, and replaced with that of Historia Reiss (with all the political back and forth that happened canonically between her and Eren as well). Though has no special rank within the military police, Ymir is yet Historia’s self-appointed protector.

When rumor comes that Bertolt and Reiner--now known as those possessing the Colossal and Armored Titans--are still alive and still close to the walls somewhere, Ymir sets out to find them after learning of the scout’s ongoing effort to reclaim Wall Maria. She decides that warning them is repayment enough for how they allowed her to remain close to Historia within the military police.

Time passes once more, leading to the scouts outward expansion of bases and the eventual reclamation of Wall Maria— as well as the discovery of what lies beyond the walls. The wide world of their island and the ocean surrounding it, and beyond that even the world of countries existing without them ever having known about it.

When this information is brought to light, Historia and Ymir are given the choice whether to leave Reiner and Bertolt to their simple life, or to force them back into military custody to get as much information about Marley from them as possible. This proves to be an unnecessary choice, as Ymir decides to find them herself and get the answers to all the questions popping up about what they might do next and what awaits them from Marley, which had been all but irrelevant in the last several years since sending Annie, Reiner, Bertolt and Marcel.

Annie, meanwhile, returns to Marley not with the founding titan, but with someone of interest: another person born of a special bloodline. Though she knows as much, Annie is not quite sure what sort of ability this person possesses, though she hadn’t trusted the fairytale of such ‘special people’ existing in the first place. This person is immediately put under watch within the Marleyan government, specifically under the care of the newest generation of Warriors and candidates, one of which being Porco Galliard, who managed to inherit a duplicate of the Jaw Titan form due to the fact that he carried that same enigmatic uniqueness in his family bloodline.

Galliard is assigned personally to the person kept under lock and key. Unbeknownst to them, it is part of a greater set of research, as Marley has been experimenting with artificially creating bloodlines of people they can turn into titan shifters without the need to sacrifice their predecessor: in essence, they would be able to create an army of superhuman monsters.

Still, Galliard has been the only successful attempt at this, and is certainly annoyed by having to play as a babysitter for someone who acts as if they barely understand how the world works even though, on one hand, that’s not very far from the truth.

[To be added upon at a later date once my brain decides to inform me what happens next]


End file.
